Project Goal Statement

by Eric McConnell ·
Published November 12, 2010
· Updated June 12, 2018

Any project requires a guiding light to achieve successful completion. A project goal statement is something like that light. A project goal statement is the basis of the project, because having a concise and clear project goal paves the way for stable project progress and ultimate project success. A project goal statement document example is to be developed at the Initiation Phase and required for creating the Project Charter.

When you have an idea for a project, you need to find several funding sources to implement that idea. Understanding the project goal statement definition will help you make sponsors express a solid interest in your project and provide you with necessary funds. In this article, you will read about the project goal statement definition and requirements for writing and presenting your goal statement.

Definition

Project Goal Statement is a clear picture view of what is to be accomplished by the project. It is a formal document to be created at the Initiation Phase showing the project context, including the project purpose, the quality focus, and the viewpoint. The project goal statement document should clearly and unambiguously point at the benefits that the sponsoring organization will gain in case the project will be successfully completed.

The goal statement document is a marketing tool that allows communicating with the sponsoring organization (aka “sponsor”, “project initiator”, “investor”) to establish relationships and request project funding. To assure the sponsoring organization that your project is worth investments, your goals statement should address a benefit for the investor based at least on three project goal statement criteria: Cost, Time and Quality. This means you need to mention about cost-effectiveness of your initiative, show time frames for accomplishment, and point at qualitative changes the project will make to the business.

Writing the Goal Statement

A useable project goal statement template can be written by following SMART technique. SMART is one of the popular techniques used in different and various management fields for setting clear, concise and comprehensive goals. SMART abbreviation stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-scaled.

Take a look at the next example of the project goal statement. Following SMART technique, a company needs to state goals for a marketing campaign. This campaign will be a project that requires a statement of goals which should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-scaled.

Specific: the company wants to attract certain or specific audience within the market.

Measurable: it wants to achieve an expected and measurable increase in sales (15%).

Realistic: it is expected the business will realistically grow by 8% a year for the next 3 years.

Time: the campaign is indented for increasing brand awareness over a specified period of time.

The best way to follow SMART technique and state goals for your project is to use goal management software. The Web offers a great variety of goal management software solutions, so you can use the web search to find the best examples of such software.

Presenting the Goal Statement

Once you have written your statement of project goals, your next step is to present this initiation document to the sponsor. The success of your project goal statement presentation will depend on how you communicate the document to the investor. That’s why it is important to know some basic requirements for presenting a statement of project goals.

To present a successful goal statement template to the owner (initiator), you can try to follow a few goal statement requirements:

When communicating or presenting the goal to the project initiator, try to speak no longer than 20-30 seconds.

Use an active voice to describe what your project will do.

Place an emphasis on the importance of the project for the initiator (business benefits).

Specify estimated time-frames for accomplishing the project.

One of the best ways to make a presentation is through using MS PowerPoint. A PTT presentation of the goals statement document will help you set right format for key points of your goals statement and show it in a short and concise way.

Eric is a project manager who has worked on various projects in the software industry for over ten years. He took a variety of roles and responsibilities for planning, executing, performing and controlling software projects and project activities. Today Eric helps software development companies in reviewing and improving their software definition, development and implementation processes. Eric is one of the most honorable contributors of MyManagemetGuide website.

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